


This is el Aperitivo

by SidheLives



Series: Fen'Harem Fluffcember 2020 [7]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Birthday, F/M, Fluffcember, Lights, Romantic Gestures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28384260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SidheLives/pseuds/SidheLives
Summary: "Do not open your eyes, cariño. No peeking, as they say."Hypetia giggled, arms outstretched to steady herself as Zevran, hands over her eyes guided her forward. "I couldn't see anything even if I did, tonto—""Shhh." He cut her off, causing another spill of giggles. "You are ruining the ambiance."Written for Fen'Harem's Fluffcember 2020Prompt: Lights
Relationships: Amell/Zevran Arainai, Female Amell/Zevran Arainai
Series: Fen'Harem Fluffcember 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035954
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8
Collections: Fen'Harem's Fluffcember 2020





	This is el Aperitivo

"Do not open your eyes, _cariño_. No peeking, as they say."

Hypetia giggled, arms outstretched to steady herself as Zevran, hands over her eyes guided her forward. "I couldn't see anything even if I did, _tonto_ —"

"Shhh." He cut her off, causing another spill of giggles. "You are ruining the ambiance."

Hypetia knew the layout of the suite they had been staying in well after two weeks, so despite her blinded state she could feel that he was guiding her to the large terrace that overlooked the canals. This was confirmed when she felt the change in the air as her feet carried her over the threshold. He stopped her, adjusting his hands so that one covered both of her eyes so he could stand beside her.

"Am I allowed to look now or is this simply the next development in our relationship?" Hypetia asked wryly.

Zevran chuckled. "You are always so impatient, _mi amor_ , but yes, you may now open your eyes."

He pulled his hand away and Hypetia blinked rapidly in the bright light of the setting sun reflecting off the clear canal water.

As her vision cleared, Hypetia's smirk disappeared under a wide-eyed gasp. When Zevran had sent her out to get wine she had known he was up to something: she never went about alone in Rivain. But she hadn't expected this.

The terrace was covered in candles: set carefully into the curled wrought iron of the railing and all across the rail, scattered around the edges of the parquet floor, in multilevel holders to either side of the door and decorating the dining table which was set with silver and fresh white roses.

"Oh, Zev." She breathed. "It's beautiful."

Zevran chuckled, wrapping his arms around her waist. "This is _el aperitivo_."

Hypetia glanced at his face. He wasn't looking at her, his eyes fixed on the canals below. The setting sun did beautiful things to his features: accenting his high cheekbones and proud nose. His skin was golden and radiant, more so than the candles or the sun. She marveled, as she often did, that someone like her, born into the most calamitous of families, had somehow stumbled onto the luck to find someone so incredible.

"Look, _cariño_." He pointed over the railing.

The sun had descended the horizon, bathing the city in a halo of soft orange and purple. From the center of town, the clock tower began to chime the hour. The lamplighters were beginning their evening work, and as she watched them, an unexpected luminescence caught her eye. It was a single pinprick of light, a candle she guessed, on one of the gondolas below. It was quickly joined by a second, then a third. More lights began to appear on another gondola, along the canal's edge, even in windows along the street. Hypetia's heart seemed to stop as the number of flames grew and grew: gondoliers, shop keepers, and street urchins moving almost invisibly as they lit candle after candle until the canals and streets around them shone like a clear sky full of stars.

" _Eres la luz de mi vida,_ " Zevran whispered softly in her ear, lifting one of her hands to his lips and laying a kiss against her palm.

"Zevran," Hypetia breathed, not trusting her voice to speak any louder. "I can't believe you did this for me."

"The anniversary of a beautiful woman's birth is the perfect time for over the top declarations of affection."

Hypetia stared at him, forehead creasing slightly as her mind picked over his words again. "It's Umbralis already?" She had lost track of the date ages before as they had constantly moved from Fereldan to Rivain to the Free Marches and back again.

Zevran gave a full-throated laugh and took her face in both of his hands to tilt her head and kiss her temple. "It is so like you to forget. _Si_ , it is the twenty-seventh day of Umbralis."

"It _is_ my birthday," Hypetia said in awe.

"I know." Zevran kissed her face again, this time on her forehead just between her brows. " _Feliz cumpleaños, mi amor_." Then he kissed her lips, the velvet softness of his touch wrapping Hypetia up and banishing everything but him and the inundant love she felt for him.

"Now we should eat," Zevran chuckled. "I have paid them to keep the lights going for only one hour, and this is a meal best enjoyed by the light of a thousand candles."

Hypetia snickered, nodding her agreement, but as he turned back into their suite she caught his wrist.

"Thank you." Her voice was still, subdued in a way she hadn't spoken in years. Not since she was a Circle Mage, untouched by the indifferent corruption of the world. "No one has ever done anything like this for me."

"I should have done it ages ago." Zevran kissed the back of her hand. "Now that we have finally finished running for our lives I intend to make ridiculously excessive romantic gestures a regular occurrence. You are _mi corazón_. You deserve nothing less."

As he ducked through the door Hypetia looked back out over the exquisite sight below them and wiped gently at her eyes with the back of one hand. 

The smoke was making them water.

Definitely the smoke.


End file.
